


D&D

by wastefulreverie



Series: PhannieMay Shots 2019 [12]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Comedy, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Humor, dnd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 14:12:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18966844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wastefulreverie/pseuds/wastefulreverie
Summary: Lester, Mikey, and Nathan were standing beside him. Mikey was fumbling with three jagged-sided dice while Lester and Nathan glared at each other. Realizing that he was awake, Lester broke eye contact with Nathan. Awkwardly, he put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Do you want to join our campaign?" he blurted.Danny tilted his head skeptically, "Join your what?"





	D&D

**Author's Note:**

> I've only played D&D once in eighth grade, but we didn't follow any real rules so I don't count that lol. I hope this at least feels accurate!

The last day of the winter semester, Danny was relieved to find out that his Honors Biology final had been cancelled. Their teacher had encountered a family emergency just before the holidays, unable to monitor their graded dissection demonstration. It was a good thing too since Danny had _not_ been looking forward to digging around in fetal pig guts on his last day of school.

The substitute basically told them to do whatever as long as they didn't wake him from his nap. A few kids left, but most of the nerdier kids moved to a corner of the classroom, chatting amiably. Danny, on the other hand, stayed at his desk. Alone. Normally, he shared this class with Tucker, but he had already taken alls his final a few days earlier since he'd left to visit family in Minnesota. Danny wasn't looking forward to telling him the news that the dissection was cancelled - he was going to be _pissed_. Before he left, Tucker had to stay after school, grueling over a sliced open fetus, doing his best to avoid getting spleen juice on his clothing.

_Danny was just grateful that wasn't him._

With nothing else to do, Danny got on his phone. He skimmed his social media accounts and decided that most of it was just the same general bullshit. He sighed, placing his phone face-down on his desk He was so _bored_ and just wanted to go home and play videogames. You know what? Maybe he would sleep, since there was nothing else to do. Besides, he probably needed the rest anyway. For the past few days, the ghosts had been more active as sort of a 'last hurrah' before the annual Truce. Between ghost-fighting and studying for his Geometry final, he'd only gotten about three hours of sleep last night.

Danny set his head down on his desk, using his arms as pseudo pillows. It was only a few seconds before he was out like a light.

… until someone was suddenly nudging his shoulder, prompting him awake. In his tired haze, he moaned something unintelligible and the person receded. How long had it been since he'd put his head down? It didn't feel like much time had passed. Was it the end of class yet?

"Don't bother him," someone hissed. "He actually looks _tired_."

"It's not fun with only two players!" another voice whisper-screamed.

 _Fuck it_ , he was awake now anyway. Danny raised his head and blinked the sleep out of his eyes. "What?" he asked.

Lester, Mikey, and Nathan were standing beside him. Mikey was fumbling with three jagged-sided dice while Lester and Nathan glared at each other. Realizing that he was awake, Lester broke eye contact with Nathan. Awkwardly, he put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "Do you want to join our campaign?" he blurted.

"Dude," Nathan slapped Lester's hand off of Danny's shoulder. "can you not read social cues?" At Nathan's accusation, Lester adopted a squeamish look.

"It's fine," Danny dismissed, trying to absolve Lester's nervousness. He tilted his head skeptically, "But join your what?"

Lester had said 'campaign'... had he meant running for student council or something? That kind of campaign? Because last Danny checked, that had been months ago and it was much too soon to start planning for next year's election.

"Our campaign," Lester reiterated.

"It's what you call a D&D game," Mikey supplied. "You know, Dungeons and Dragons?"

Oh right… Danny had heard of that. Tucker had tried to get into it when they were in middle school. He'd told Danny about a few games, but could never really immerse himself in fantasy - Tucker was definitely more of a sci-fi geek.

"That's that fantasy role-play thing, right?"

"See!" Lester jabbed Nathan. "I told you that he was nerdy enough to know about it! _One of us_!"

"So… do you want to join?" Nathan asked. "Mikey's the DM, so it'll just be the three of us playing."

The meaning of Nathan's words were lost on him. "I don't really know how to play," he admitted. That, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to accept their offer or not. He _was_ still pretty tired…. Besides, he didn't even know if he'd like it or not.

"That's fine! It's really easy to learn!" Lester declared. "So, you basically make a character for yourself, right? And you get to chose your fighting story and tragic backstory-"

"-it doesn't _have_ to be tragic," Mikey interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah," Lester rolled his eyes. "You chose your own _'_ _happy_ , picture-perfect' backstory, and then all our characters go on an adventure together. Mikey sets up the story and gives us options, and we have to roll a die to get the outcome of that choice! Like if you roll a six-out-of-six, then your decision will be really effective, if you get a one-out-of-six-"

"You're fucked," Nathan summed up.

"Yep, and that's the basics," Mikey agreed.

They were right, that did sound easy; you just made most of everything up. There didn't seem to be any strict rules, so it was simple to just jump into. "I guess I'll give it a shot," Danny decided.

* * *

Danny hadn't known what to choose for his character's 'class', so he just chose the first thing that came to mind. "Can I be a ghost?"

Lester and Nathan shrugged and turned to Mikey. The four of them had pushed four desks together in the corner to make one square table. Between them was a worn binder, overflowing with too many papers; five various multi-colored dice; and loose sheets strewn across their makeshift table, character notes and accounts of their past adventures.

"Can he do that?" Nathan asked.

"I mean…" the red-haired boy pondered, "I think that characters _can_ be ghosts in the fifth edition of D&D. This isn't exactly a serious campaign either, so you do you. If you wanna be a ghost, then go for it."

Danny nodded. "Cool."

Lester snorted, "It's kind of ironic. In real life, your parents hunt ghosts and you wanna-" he laughed "- _be a ghost_."

 _If only he knew_ how _ironic it was_.

"My parents are always talking about how powerful ghosts are," Danny explained. "Might as well have some fun playing as the other side."

"That's actually hilarious," Nathan said. He leaned forward with a giddy smile, "You should actually tell your parents that you're a ghost and see how they'd react."

" _Pft_ ," Mikey laughed, "wouldn't they kill him?"

"Not before experimenting," Lester pointed out. "'Whoops my son's a ghost now, gotta melt a homie down…'"

Ignoring the sheer accuracy in their statements (which didn't sting as much as it should have), Danny grinned. "Maybe that's my tragic backstory," he joked. "My parents wanted to catch a ghost so badly that they made me into one." Once again, not a lie; just an extreme exaggeration of the truth.

Everyone laughed at that. Danny realized that he could probably be a good comedian just by telling his life story.

"You know what you should do?" Lester suggested. "You should make yourself the Phantom of our fantasy world! A badass superhero ghost."

Nope! _Too close, too risky._ He forced a chuckle, "I think I'll pass." He paused, and affirmed, "I just want to be a ghost to mess around, not some eternal Batman gig." ...that explanation would probably divert association with his other half.

"So you want to be like a poltergeist, wrecking havoc?" Mikey proposed. He reached for their campaign binder, ready to start a short page of notes about Danny's character.

"Uh, no," Danny corrected. "I'm still a good guy, not 'wreaking havoc'. Just… messing with people, not in a destructive way."

"Got it," Mikey nodded. "And actually, Danny I gotta thank you for this. Because you just gave me a great idea for our next side-adventure."

"Oh, can you give a synopsis?" Nathan asked. He haphazardly leaned back in his seat.

Mikey smirked, "I don't know if you fools are worth sharing the knowledge with."

"Just one spoiler?" Lester playfully shoved Mikey in the arm.

"I'm still _not sure_ ," Mikey responded, picking up a green and orange, twenty-sided die. He tossed it between his hands for a moment. "But since you _insist_ , rowdy bard, I guess I will concede."

Lester rolled his eyes, "Then give me your fucking knowledge, _o'wise_ Dungeon Master."

"Well," Mikey deliberated. "How about summoning the spirit of Danny Phantom?"

Danny almost recoiled in disbelief… they were going to use _him_ (well, his ghost-half) in the story?

"Yes!" Lester cheered.

"Th - that's cool," Danny stuttered. _Holy shit_ , this was going to be so weird.

" _That_ is solid," Nathan declared. He paused, thinking for a moment, "But we don't have a necromancer though."

"Well, too bad. We have a ghost, a bard, and a mage; the three of you should be able to come up with something. Now, for your background information…" Mikey pulled an electric pencil from his pocket and started scrawling on a crumpled piece of notebook paper. He used a nearby Biology textbook as a barrier so the party couldn't read his notes. "It all started when Vonriel and Avar met… Danny, what's your character's name?"

"Uh…" Danny was taken off-guard. He already wasn't off to a good start with this 'decision making' game. "I don't know. Uh… Ganymede?" Ganymede was the largest moon in the Solar System, Jupiter's biggest satellite. Space trivia was one thing he could always count on.

" _Nice_ ," Lester amended. "That sounds _raw_."

"So," Mikey continued, "one day Vonriel and Avar met Ganymede, a recently deceased ghost…."

* * *

"...the merchant refuses to give you directions to where to buy an enchanted raven's feather," Mikey determined.

They'd been playing for at least forty minutes now, with only fifteen minutes left in class. In that time, their characters Vonriel, Avar, and Ganymede began a quest to go summon the ghostly warrior, Phantom, so that he could teach Ganymede how to harness his ghostly abilities. In order to summon Phantom, they had to run a bunch of errands to collect the proper summon materials. At first, Danny had assumed it would be tedious, until the stakes were raised and they had to fight off monsters in order to steal the ingredients. Probability-oriented creative decision making was a _lot_ more fun than he initially expected.

Especially when the goal of the game was to summon himself in order to teach himself how to control his powers… _that didn't even make sense_.

"What? Why?" Danny demanded. "I rolled an eight out of ten!"

"Yeah, but you needed at least a nine for charisma," Mikey tsked. "Now the party has to find a raven, then Avar can enchant it himself-"

"If I don't completely screw it up," Nathan groaned.

"-and if you guys do that, then you've collected all the materials! Now, Vonriel, should the party look for a raven in the Autumnsor Grove, a nearby forest lurking with unknown dangers and dark magic; or the Notshall Expanse, a far valley full of placid wildlife and woodland creatures?"

Lester laughed, "Autumnsor, no question about it."

Mikey made a note of the decision and continued, "The party has embarked to the Autumnsor Grove in search of a raven. Upon your arrival, you see three pathways. One pathway leads towards a clear-cut path, lit with crystalline orbs of light; the second path is tangled with tree roots and has eerie red eyes lurking behind bushes; the last path is dark and pathed with green stones, littered with skeletons beside the path. Avar, what do you chose?"

"Uh…" Nathan thought, "the orb path?"

"Ugh," Lester complained, "stop making boring choices."

Mikey placed a four-sided die in front of Nathan. "Roll." He shook the die between his hands and rolled a three. Mikey made another note.

"You go down the path with the lights," Mikey recited. "You have no major troubles until the mysterious lights swarm Ganymede, attracted to your spiritual energy. What do you do?" Mikey turned to Danny.

Danny had been bullshitting his way through the game by thinking of whatever he would do as Phantom. "Are the orbs solid?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I go intangible and they don't bother me anymore," Danny answered. They'd established that he could use his powers scarcelessly. He could go invisible, intangible, and use his ectoblasts - that was about it.

"Roll a ten-sided," Mikey passed the die to him. Danny rolled and got a five.

"You manage to go intangible, but the orbs are stilling following you, blinding you in your face. Their light is so bright that you can't see."

"Can I just stay blind?" Danny wondered.

"Whatever floats your boat dude," Lester shrugged.

"You can't walk down the path while you're being blinded," Mikey told him. "You can go tangible again and Avar and Vonriel can steer you down the path."

"Okay, I'll be tangible again, then."

"Wait, I didn't agree to that!" Lester protested. "I say let him trip."

" _Thanks_ Lester," Danny cocked lopsided a grin.

"Okay," Mikey resumed, a bit irritable, "Avar helps Ganymede down the path. While Avar is focused on supporting Ganymede, Vonriel spots a raven up in a darkwood tree. What do you do Vonriel, and remember, all you need is a feather."

"I yeet my rapier at it and kill it," Lester smiled ferally. "It falls from the tree into my arms and I yank those feathers out."

Nathan mockingly applauded, "Our _finest_ strategist, everyone."

Mikey gave Lester a twenty-sided die; he rolled a solid nineteen.

Lester laughed wildly, attracting the attention of some of their other classmates, who were studying back at their desks. "Holy shit, _yes_!"

Danny was honestly surprised that he managed to get a near-perfect score. Mikey recounted how Vonriel struck the bird out of the tree, dealing a certain amount of damage. They plucked the feathers from the bird and stored them in Avar's pouch. Then, their characters left the woods and returned to town. There, Avar managed to enchant the feather (it took Nathan two tries to actually perfect the enchantment) and they had their final ingredient.

Their party gathered all the summoning materials together, amassing the fictional prizes that they had acclaimed in the past fifty minutes. Mikey announced that they each needed to roll a twenty-sided die to determine how effective the summoning would be. First, Lester rolled a seventeen out of twenty. Nathan rolled an eleven out of twenty, not bad but not necessarily good. Finally, Danny clasped the die and rolled it onto the tabletop, waiting with anticipated breath as it landed on… a _four_. Shit.

Mikey frantically scribbled down their score in his notes. "The ritual was a partial success. The celestial candles extinguish once you finish your incantations, leaving you in darkness. In the middle of your triangle, a white light appears and begins to take form. It's Phantom, or at least it looks like him at first. The form of white light splits and you realize that instead of Phantom, you summoned two ghosts: Phantom, and a malevolent spirit. The malevolent spirit… the uh… _Box Ghost_ breaks away from Phantom. He lashes out and burns Avar's forearm, leaving a blister the size of a fist. The Box Ghost turns on Ganymede and is able to deal more damage since you are both ghosts. The Box Ghost strikes Ganymede in the stomach, causing him to bleed… what's ghost blood called?"

"Ectoplasm," Danny supplied.

"Box Ghost causes Ganymede to bleed ectoplasm, dealing four damage. Phantom is momentarily incapacitated, disoriented from the summoning. The Box Ghost flies above your party, summoning crates of dangerous explosives-"

"-he can _do_ that?" Nathan protested.

"He controls boxes, so yeah," Danny pointed. "Luckily, the real Box Ghost hasn't tried that yet. Otherwise I - Phantom'd have to deal with a lot more damage," he caught his slip-up.

" _Ahem_ ," Mikey interrupted. "As I was saying, the Box Ghost summons crates of explosives! Vonriel, Ganymede and Avar are wounded and the Box Ghost is a looming threat. And Phantom is still confused from the summoning, so he's unfortunately useless right now. What-"

Mikey was cut off by the bell, indicating that class was officially over. The four of them looked to each other in panic, having lost a firm grasp of the time. They should've started wrapping the game up at least five minutes ago, but they were _so_ close to summoning Phantom that they disregarded ending. The dice were scattered over the tabletop, disorganized papers everywhere, and _where the hell was the binder_?

" _Shit_ ," Lester swore. He clamored for the dice, collecting as many of them as possible. Instead, he managed to knock over the textbook that Mikey had propped up for concealing his notes. The Biology textbook landed on Lester's hand and he dropped all the dice at once; bouncing off the linoleum floor, they rolled in every direction.

" _Double_ shit," Nathan repeated.

"I got the papers," Mikey nodded. "You guys get the dice. I _can't_ be late for my English final-"

"-and I can't miss AP Government!" Lester hissed back.

Danny frantically tried to help the other guys collect all the dice. It was especially hard since their other classmates were filtering out of the classroom, apathetically stepping over the dice. It was difficult to grab them when people didn't care whether or not they stepped on your hand. Everyone was in a hurry to make it to their next exam, after all.

Danny chased after the eight-sided die. It had bounced across the floor and had gotten wedged underneath a desk. Danny got on his knees and tried to get it out, but he couldn't move his arm at a good enough angle to grab it. So, in a reckless burst of desperation, Danny phased his hand through the bottom rung of the desk where the die had gotten stuck. He managed to retrieve the die and quickly pocketed it. Looking around, he realized that Lester and Nathan had already managed to gather up the other five rogue dice.

He returned to their corner of the classroom and passed the die to Lester… who was looking at him oddly. Danny brushed off the weird look and helped grab some of the sheets that Mikey had neglected in his frenzy. Moments later, Lester broke out of his stupor and finished packing up the dice. Everything was officially wrapped up.

"Thanks for teaching me the game!" Danny said shortly, "It was fun!" Not wanting to be late, Danny threw his backpack over his shoulder and bolted for the door. He didn't realize that Lester hadn't stopped watching him strangely. Or that when he phased his hand through the desk, he had never looked behind him...

Back in the classroom, Nathan nudged Lester. "What's your deal, dude?"

Lester hadn't moved since Danny had left, even though he was severely running late to AP Government. "Nothing," he shook his head. "I just thought I saw… It doesn't matter."

He grabbed his own backpack and left the classroom. Nathan shrugged, none the wiser. Though, Lester was starting to suspect that Danny's character class wasn't exactly as hilarious as he had initially chalked it up to be. After what he'd seen with Danny's hand and the die, it felt like… there was something _more_ there. Something beyond their fictions of Dungeons and Dragons.


End file.
